High Voltage ยท HPFF
We buy HPFF cable.
High-pressure fluid-filled cable is a system rather than a reel: three paper-insulated cables inside a steel pipe, held under oil pressure, terminated in potheads at each end.
Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
SystemPipe-type, oil-filled
Voltage range69 kV to 345 kV
Also boughtPotheads, steel pipe
Priced onCable size, oil status
Get a buy quote
Send the reel list. A buyer reads it.
Six details are enough to start. Tags and photos can follow by text or email once a buyer has looked at the basics.
- A buyer reviews the lot: construction, footage and condition, not only metal weight
- Copper and aluminium, 600 V building wire through 345 kV cable
- Full reels, partial reels, cut lengths, pallets and truckloads
- No fee, no obligation, and no automatic pickup
Reel list · HPFF Cable
Reviewed by a buyerTell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.
HPFF was how cities moved large blocks of power underground for most of the last century. The cable itself is paper-insulated and lead-sheathed, but it never works alone: it sits in a coated steel pipe filled with dielectric oil, kept under pressure by a pumping plant or a set of pressure tanks. That is why it is never sold by the foot, only by the system.
Gas-filled systems use the same pipe idea with pressurised gas instead of oil. Both are retirement work now, and both produce a lot that includes cable, accessories, fluid and steel rather than only cable. The cable inside is usually the same paper-insulated, lead-sheathed material that would otherwise sit in a duct, which is why these lots are valued as paper cable with a pipe attached.
01
What the system contains
A pipe-type circuit is three single-core cables pulled into one steel pipe, spaced by skids, with the pipe filled with oil and held at pressure. At each end the cables rise into potheads, the large porcelain or composite terminations seen inside a fenced yard.
Pressure comes from a pumping plant or from nitrogen-backed tanks. That is why the system has alarms, and why decommissioning it is a procedure rather than a pull. A circuit at pressure is not a cable lot yet.
02
Decommissioning runs in sequence
The order of work is fixed, and each step has to finish before the next begins. Skipping ahead is how oil ends up on a road or in a storm drain.
- De-energise, isolate and lock out the circuit
- Drain the oil and characterise it before disposal
- Depressurise and prove the pipe is at atmospheric
- Open the pipe at the pulling pits and cut the cable
- Winch the cable out, then recover potheads and pipe
03
Potheads, oil and the parts that are not cable
Potheads are worth identifying. They are heavy, fragile, and often the only part of a retired HPFF circuit that a collector wants intact. Photograph them before anything is unbolted, and note whether the porcelain is cracked.
The oil is the constraint on the whole job. It has to be tested and handled as a regulated fluid in most cases, and a cable lot that arrives still dripping is a different proposition from one that was drained and wiped.
04
What can travel together
Cable, potheads, skids and pipe can all leave on one job if they are separated on the ground. What cannot is oil, contaminated soil, or anything that has been sitting in a pit.
Tell us the pipe diameter, the cable size, roughly how many feet, and what has been done about the oil. With those four answers a retired HPFF circuit can be scoped before anyone visits the site.
- Cable, cut into pulling lengths or left whole
- Potheads, crated rather than loose
- Steel pipe, cut to lengths a truck can take
- Skids and spacers, bagged separately
| Item | Range | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Paper cable, lead sheath | 500 to 2500 kcmil | Drained and wiped |
| Steel pipe | 4 to 8 in | Coated, cut to length |
| Potheads | 69 kV to 345 kV | Porcelain, fragile |
| Skids and spacers | Pipe-specific | Separate from cable |
Questions
Answers before you send anything.
If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.
Do you take the oil as well as the cable?
The fluid has to be characterised first, and its handling is normally part of the retirement contract rather than the cable sale. Tell us the volume and whether it has been tested, and we will say what can be collected.
How is HPFF cable priced once it is out of the pipe?
On conductor size, sheath condition and length, the same as other paper cable, with oil staining treated as normal. Cable that came out in short pieces is priced on metal because it cannot be spliced back into a run.
Are the potheads worth anything?
Sometimes, and always worth a photograph. Intact porcelain potheads from a known voltage class are what collectors ask about, and they travel upright with nothing loaded on top of them. Cracked ones are scrap.
Can a pipe-type circuit be pulled without a winch?
Not practically. The cable is heavy, friction in a long pipe is high, and pulling by truck is how cable and people get hurt. This is rigging work with a load cell, and it belongs to a contractor set up for it.
Keep reading
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No fee · no obligation
You have the cable. We have a scale and a check.
Send the reel list, the tags or a photograph of the pallet. A buyer comes back with what the lot is worth and how pickup would work, before anything is moved.
954-740-1983 Call or text
- Reel tags, or the print on the jacket
- Reel count and footage, even roughly
- Where it sits and what can reach it
- Whether the cable is still energised